Behind the Mist
by she.owns.my.soul
Summary: Piper and Leo are helped by Hera to recover their memories that were clouded by the mist when Jason joined them. This lets Piper and Leo see their past without Jason. NOTE: I wrote this when I was 12 years old and Now I am 15 and writing my first fantasy book! I have reviewed this story and realised I didn't like how it ended. When I find some time I will edit it!
1. Introduction

After the second giant war, Hera was forced, as a punishment, to correct Leo and Piper's memories from before they met Jason.

Piper was at first reluctant to agree because she felt like she wanted to feel like Jason had been there for longer even if she knew that it was all false.

Jason and Leo persuaded her to agree because it would be a lot of help for her to know the truth about her past without Jason and she and Jason would have the chance to have a better and healthier relationship that way.

She finally agreed.

Leo and Piper were summoned to Olympus and Hera was waiting for them, supervised by Zeus. Hera lifted the enchantments and effects of the mist from them and at last they knew the truth.

At first nothing happened, and they were both confused but then they both felt a sudden drowsiness and felt their eyelids grow really heavy.

The Goddess acted like it was an everyday thing that happened so they ignored the kids and started a different conversation...something about Apollo?

They didn't have a chance to hear anything else before they both plunged into what then seemed like a very deep sleep.

 _Back at camp_ :

Piper was lying restlessly on her bed in the Aphrodite cabin. Her siblings were all asleep, but she was gazing unblinkingly at the dark ceiling.

Her mind was a jumble of events that seemed to play over eachother, intrerrupting and restarting at random moments.

She tried to put them all in order, at least find a logical sequence. But she was too full of energy to lay down.

She stood up and threw on a hoodie over her pyjamas and walked quickly but noiselessly through the dark cabin, avoiding waking her siblings up.

She stepped out in to the cool breeze of the night and stood in the open doorway, staring at the crescent moon with a lopsided stare, making the moon look like a smiling set of teeth.

In the distance she heard the sounds of various beasts and creatures that roamed the forest at night, but her inward terror made her surprisingly calm on the outside.

She stole a quick glance at the Hepheastus cabin, the looked away almost immediately, as if Leo could see her expressions through the walls.

She took several deep breaths and then aat down and rested her head on the wall or her cabin, next to a pot of red tulips.

She started from the beginning.


	2. Chapter 1

After she had presumably 'stolen' the Car, her father had arranged for her to get some reformation and sent her there.

The first day at the Wilderness school was an embarrassment. She could have juat taken a bus, or a taxi or even just have had one of her father's assistants drive her there.

But no. Her father insisted that the whole array of assistants went along with her in a freaking helicopter. What was worse, she looked around at the ither people who seemed to only be carrying One or two medium sized bags.

Since sha hadn't done the packing, her overall possessions all fit into four suitcases, two backpacks and a purse, not to mention the pet carrier for the mice her father had gifted to her on her birthday that she soon set free. As well as the guitar case and special case just for her laptop and tablets and other delicate things.

As she looked out at the crowds of people who were taking half-a-second glances at her without realising she was noticing, she heard snippets of conversations between friends.

'What a show-off, seriously, a helicopter?"

"Well I guess we all know who daddy's little princess is.

That was just from some of the girls. She disn't even want to hear what the boys were saying about her.

She urged her assistants to leave as soon as all the bags were in her room and assured them that she would be fine on her own.

Once she was all alone in her room, she went to the only place she knew she would not be seen from the outside- she crouched underneath the window. She knew that people were watching her every move ever since the moment she stepped into the place.

She grew tired of having eyes on her every moment of the day.

So she sat under the open window, letting the warm breeze blow small strands of her long brown hair up in the air then let then fall on her face, sometines tickling her nose.

She sat like this, not really expressing any real emotion, just sitting and staring at the inside of her eyelids.

She sat there for a short time, listening to people who were arriving, talking to their friends, family, and the familiar sound of car engines. All too familiar, she listened for the sound of another hwlicopter, hoping agains hope that there would be another to distract everyone from her. Something more spectacular and memorable that the dumb rich girl who showed up in a helicopter and half a dozen bags.

She sat and listened to the drone-like sound of voices. Until, in the centre of it all, a new sound was introduced. Was that... a fizz?

For a few seconds, the sound continued as the voices quietend, everybody searching for the source of the noise...


	3. Chapter 2

Reluctantly, Piper lifted gerself up, using the windowsill for support. She got on her knees and squinted at the sun-filled yard. She saw a few groups of kids scattered around the place, most of them were staring at the sky, which was filled with the remaining, yet fading, sparks of what seemed to have been a green firework.

The rest of the kids were gaping around, looking for the source of the firework.

A group of teachers rushed out of the school and started looking around for the miscreant. All the kids turned their heads towards them. Except forone little boy. He was frantically stuffing something inside his bag. Piper studied him closely. She notices he only carried a small backpack and one more black bag that hung on his shoulder, but seemed too heavy for his skinny body.

His skin was the colour of milky coffee and his curly brown hair twisted in every direction. As he walked towards the building with the rest of the kids, who were being herded in by the teachers, he was tapping his fingers on his bag straps, like he had too much energy to keep still. And on his face was the most guilty grin Piper had ever seen.

 _Later in the cafeteria:_

Piper was holding a plastic tray with tomato soup in what looked like it used to be a white bowl, but now was more on the yellow side. She spotted an empty table in the mass sea of teenagers, no doubt chatting about either the mysterious prankster who got away with setting off a firework in broad daylight or her embarassing entry.

She walked over to the table and while she did so, she passed a table of a few boys, who all looked like stereotypical 'popular guys'. While she was passing them one of them, let's call him Chad, Leaned over and slapped her bottom. Piper froze, not letting her anger show. She turned slowly and said firmly, "Never touch me again." It wasn't uncommon for her to get hit on. In fact, the first and second time it happened, the guys who did it both ended up with broken nose, the second with a busted lip.

As she turned she noticed the firework kid sitting at a table, back to back with Chad, and even though he wasn't showing it, Piper knew he was listening closely.

She turned back and walked to her table. As she sat down, she heard Chad and his friends whistling at her and making kissy noises. Again, she looked him straight in the eyes and spoke very clearly, " Not that your minuscule brain could possibly fathom simple English, but I told you, leave me alone."

She saw the kid shuffle in his seat, like he was reaching into his pocket for something.

Chad gave up after that, but while he was turning to his friend, she heard him mutter, "Damn, well if the rich girl can't take a compli-" He couldn't finish his sentence. A piercing scream filled the air and the whole room went quiet as every head turned to watch Chad flail like a clown on the ground, looking like he was trying to get something off his back.

Piper saw what it was and almost screamed herself, but the small, robotic spider was already crawling back towards the firework kid. It crawled up his leg and entered one of his many pockets.

At this point, Chad realised that whatever was on him was gone and every person in the cafeteria was staring at him. His face turned beet red and he sat back at his chair. Piper heard his friends ask him what happened. Chad muttered something about feeling a spider on his neck. He looked even more embarrassed when his friends told him they didn't see anything.


	4. Chapter 3

Classes started the next morning. She always tried not to wear anything that could even be thought to be flattering in public. This time she wore black jeans and a plain blue tee underneath an old grey hoodie that had stains and marks all over them. She also wore some faded black high tops. Her hair, she always left unbrushed.

Every single thing she owned was bought by her father's assistants. That meant, designer everything. From her bags to clothes to stationery, everything was branded and expensive and she hated every single thing so much that she went out of her way to alter her things to hide the fact that her eraser cost as much as your phone. That particular outfit she bought from a charity shop she visited the first time she tried to run away.

Her stationery, she threw away and bought new ones from a back to school section at a supermarket.

There was nothing to do about her bags though, she didn't have time to get a new one before her dad noticed and got hurt. She knew he bought her all that expensive stuff to make her happy, but instead it just made her feel out of place.

With all the stuff, it made all the other rich snobby kids think she was one of them. But she wanted to hang out with normal people. But they never wanted to be friends with her because they thought she was just another spoilt brat.

She headed to breakfast and tried to catch a glimpse of the kid from yesterday between mouthfulls of toast. But she couldn't spot him. However, she did see Chad and his friends. He seemed to have recovered from the shock from yesterday and was now chatting up a much more willing girl. Piper kind of felt bad for her, but she didn't have time to get involved.

She was abiut to get up and throw the remains of her toast crust into the trash when suddenly she felt a presence behind her. She turned and almost yelped, the boy was standing behind her holding a tray with a bowl of cereal. She almost hit her head on the tray but barely missed it, saving both of them from a shower of cinnamon toast crunch and milk

"Um... Hi?" she said after a moment. What was he doing here. Of all people to sit next to, why her? Then again, Piper thought, looking him up and down, he doesn't look like someone who cares much for appearances.

"Morning!" he said cheerfully, "Can I sit here?" he didn't wait for an answwr and plopped down his tray across from Piper. Then he sat down and started eating. Between mouthfulls of cereal he said to Piper. "You looked a bit lonely. Thought i'd come sit next to you. What's your name?"

"Piper?" she answered. He made a hand motion that told her to say the rest of it. "McLean?" She said her last name almost in a whisper, hoping that anyone who had't figured it out yet wouldn't get a chance to, right now at breakfast.

Thankfully, the boy seemed not to have made the connection, or at least not have been familiar with her father, which was even better.

"Cool, I'm Leo Valdez, professional mischief maker and disappointment," he added with a smirk, as if he was proud of that title. Piper couldn't help but laugh. "We have the first and second period together," he said. Piper tried to remember what that was. Oh, double technology class. Great, she thought, she usually hated everyhring to do with computers, hammers, or anything remotely to do with 'tinkering'. She did a double take-

"Wait," she started, just as he was getting up, "how do you know what classes I have? I'm the only one with my timetable."

Leo's smile faded. "Oh! Well...umm..".Just then the bell rang and he said something along the lines of "I'll tell you in class!" before running off to put away his tray.


	5. Chapter 4

As Piper entered the technology classroom she couldn't help but notice that everybody in the room - including the tracher, a very short, fat, balding man - looked like they would literally be anywhere in the world than here. That is, everyone except Leo.

His smug expression indicated that he knew more than anyone in the room combined, and, looking at the various bits of metal and wire flooding out of his pockets, he probably did.

The very first thing the teacher did was to introduce himself as Mr Commons. He told the class that he would be their technology teacher until the end of the winter term, and after the Christmas holidays they would get a new teacher. Then he brought out a tablet the size of a large book and the thickness of pencil and started saying names on the register, then pointing to a seat and telling them to sit down.

As Piper's name was called out, almost everybody in the room turned to look at her, then almost immediately turn to the person next to them to whisper something. Piper didn't care, she was used to this anyhow.

She was sat down at the back of the classroom and waited for the next person to sit next to her. The seating plan was supposed to be in alphabetical order based on heir last names, and the next person in the register was a tall girl named Miriam Oswald. She had short blond hair and lots of dark freckles on her cheeks and nose, which had a black ring on her right nostril.

As soon as Miriam sat down in her seat Mr Commons started talking confusedly. "Wait, what? No, it's... it must have been a mistake..." He looked at Miriam, (who had just started asking Piper if she was really the daughter of a famous actor and why she was not in some fancy private school) and said "Miriam you actually are in the wrong seat...um is there a Leo Valdez here?"

She looked over to Leo, who had just stuffed some small object onto his pocket. "Here, sir!" he said gleefully.

"Leo is that a phone I saw? We have a strict No Phones during class policy here!" mons asked him, walking towards him. Leo took out the thing from his pocket.

"This?" he took it out from his pocket. It was clearly a calculator, it even had the company logo on it.

"Oh ok then. Um, I don't know if this is a mistake or not, because this is meant to be in alphabetical order, but you are meant to sit next to Piper over there." He pointed to her but Leo was already walking towards her. Miriam got up with a huff and was told to sit next to a boy called Graham instead.

The whole lesson was meant to be an introduction to the curriculum, which was as boring as a reform school could allow, so the mojority of the time was spent listening to the teacher. Piper was surprised to see that most of the kids actually sat quietly and listened. She expected fights to have broken out within 5 minutes. She soon came to realise that for many of these kids, this was their last resort, before juvie.

Piper had many questions to ask Leo, and as soon as Mr Commons said they could "talk quietly among themselves" she tuened to him and said "Why and How and Who are you?"

Leo looked at her for a second confusedly then said "Am I supposed to answer all those questions in one go or separately?" Piper gave him a hard expression. "Separately then." He looked a bit nervous. " I guess I'll start with the easiest of those. My name is Leo Valdez, I am 13 years old, I'm from Houston, Texas and-"

Piper interupted "Ok this isn't what I was getting at. Let me just ask the questions again. Do you have anything to do with the seating change?" Leo nodded. "How did you do that?" Leo took out the calculator. "That's just a calculator. You can't hack top-security schools with a calculator." Leo put it on the table and turned it on, the screen lit up and showed a bunch of code that Piper didn't even try to understand.

"Whatever haplened to 'don't judge a book by its cover?' I have a knack for these things, I guess I got it from my mom, she was great with this kind of stuff." Piper was about to ask about his mom, but the noise in the room got too loud and Mr Commons made them do quiet work. Leo passed the calculator to Piper. It displayed nothing but 'C44 23:00 I'll explain everything."

Piper understood everything, and she thought she knew what was going to happen. She thought.


	6. Chapter 5

*back at camp*

Piper snapped out of her thoughts when she heard the creaking of a door opening. She sat up and looked across the grass. The door to the Zeus Cabin was open. Jason walked outside for his early run and Piper realised that the sun was amost rising. She quickly stood up and rushed back into the Aphrodite cabin, not daring to look at Jason.

She didn't know how she would ever look him in the eyes again. She hadn't talked to either Leo or Jason since they convinced her to get her memories back, and now she thought that both her and Leo would never look at eachother the same way again.

She was about to go and try to sleep again when she heard a soft knock at the door. She began panicking. 'Oh no, this is Jason, he saw me rush back in and now he's going to ask me about my memories and then I'll have to lie to him and if he ever finds out he'll hate me and never want to see me again. I'll lose two of my best friends in one day!' These thoughts flooded her conscience, she didn't notice that whoever had knocked had already given up and left already. When she finally calmed down and opened the door, expecting to see Jason, she saw nothing but the rising sun, and the Apollo kids getting out at the buttcrack of dawn as usual.

Her breath slowed and so did her heartbeat. But she knew she would have to face him soon, at breakfast, she could probably avoid him, but they were supposed to be in a meeting at the big house togwther this afternoon. She never dreaded seeing her boyfriend until now.

Later, 7.12 am.

Piper had been thinking since sunrise, and she hadn't been able to think of something to do other than to talk to Annabeth. She was the smartest person she knew, she should surely have a plan for this, right?


	7. Chapter 6

It was a few minutes until 11pm and Piper was awake in her room. She had devised a plan that wou6kd get her to C44 without waking or alarming anybody. She put on 2 pairs of socks and carried her shoes in her hands, a tip she learned over many years of sneaking out of her house. She had already memorized the hall guard schedule and worked out that she had exactly 2 minutes and 45 seconds to get to the elevator before the guard would walk around the corner. If it came to that, she was very persuasive, and was sure she could get out of it but that would involve talking and her goal was to wake up as few people as possible.

She quietly turned off her light, and opened the door. Knowing that the doors made a loud click when closing, she folded the carpet in a way that kept the door open a few inches, then creeped quickly along th wooden floor, keeping close to the wall to reduce creaks.

She got to the elevator 7 seconds befor the guard was meant to turn the corner, and sighed a sight of relief. She pressed the button for floor C, and hoped that the elevator ding wouldn't rouse any suspicion.

When she reached floor C, she had forgotten that she had no idea the guard routine for this floor, and was met face to face with a large, dark woman with a menacing look and a very bright torch.

"And wot are ya doing out uv yer room little lady?" She asked in a thick scottish accent. Piler gulped. "Ach, I don't want ter kno' wot ye wud ave got up ter, ye don't look like the druggie type anyway. Let's jest get ye back to yer room, and then ye caen tell me-"

"I sleepwalk!" Piper said rather loudly. The guard looked at her with a blank stare. "This is a very bad thing you just did, you're not supposed to wake a sleepwalker, I could have had a heart attack!" The guard began to look a bit nervous in the torchlight. "I suppose you know who my father is?"

"Um, yes Mess McLean."

"Then I suppose you know what would happen to you if the public knew you put the life of Tristan McLean's daughter in danger?"

"Uh, ye-"

"Look here-" Piper squinted at her name badge "- Soren. Let me cut you a deal. You keep quiet and let me go do... what was it that I was doing?"

"Drugs?"

"Yes, you keep quiet about my... drugs, and I'll keep quiet about you threatening my life, mkay?"

Soren said nothing but nodded and turned and walked away.

Piper walked down the corridor of floor c until she found room 44. She knocked three times and waited for someone to open the door. After 2 seconds, there came a faint sound of a drawer closing and feet shuffling across the floor. Then the door opened and Leo was standing there in his pajamas. "You're 3 minutes late, I tought you weren't coming." He pulled Piper into his room.

"I ran in to some trouble with Soren."

"Ah, Soren is one of the easy ones. I convinced her to let me out past 1 am as long as I don't set the Wasp on her."

Piper thought this was less convincing, more like threatening.

"What's the wasp?" Piper asked, remembering thay when Soren had seen her, she already looked a bit frazzled.

Leo walked over to his bedside table and opened a drawer, he rummaged in it for a few seconds before taking out what looked like a large metal hornet. It was made with very delicatte attention to detail, Piper could see the groves on its wings and the tiny eyes on its head. Leo twisted the wings around twice and the wasp came to life and started hovering about 4 inches above Leo's hand.

"Where did you get that?" Piper asked, in awe.

"Made it in tech today, didn't you see?" Piper was about to answer that no, she hadn't, when Leo quickly said. "Ok, so this isn't a good place to talk, might wake up the people."

"So where should we go?" Piper asked, thinking she might have seen a janitor's closed on her way there.

Leo said "I know a place." He walked over to the door, and opened it just enough for the wasp to fly out and buzz around for a few seconds, then fly back in. It sat on Leo's palm and gave 2 small beeps, then powered down.

"Come on, the way to the roof is clear."


	8. Chapter 7

*flashback*

Leo had helped Piper climb out of his window and onto a small platform that ran around the whole building and.was illuminated only by the moon. They walked along the side of the building until they turned a corner and found a short rusty ladder leading to the roof.

As they climbed up Piper couldn't help but notice how quiet everything was. it must have been about half past eleven then, everybody except the guards were asleep.

When they reached the roof, which was easy to sit on as the soft moss completely covered the hard tiles, Piper turned and looked out across the darkness. Where she had grown up, she was used to seeing a sea of lights flashing across the city, and the bustling noise of traffic echoing around the skyscrapers.

Here, there was absolutely nothing for miles, not even some small farm or distant telephone pole. They didn't lie when they said this place was top-security.

Leo and Piper sat down on the sloped roof and looked up. To Piper, it seemed like all the lights that were missing from in front of her had moved to the sky, which was usually black or faded grey in the city. To her it was breathtaking. But Leo looked at it with a sort of admiration, like something that aroused some old almost forgotten memory of a land that doesn't really exist.

Then he began telling his story.

He told her about the strange things that happened during his childhood, the old woman who told him cryptid things when he was a young child, of his mother and their workshop and how he was thought to have been the cause of the fire that killed her.

He told her about all the special schools and orphanages and foster homes he was sent to and consequently ran away from. He said that even at the lowest moments in his life, when he was living on the streets, or hiding in some basement or other from police, he saw his mother's face and heard her voice telling him that he was better than this, that he was destined for more, that his father was coming for him, he loved him so much, he would be so proud of him.

He never liked thinking about his father. He never met him, but that was just another reason to hate him. He promised his mom that she was special, that Leo was special. And where was he now?

As he talked, Piper listened, and took everything in. Then he stopped and closed his eyes. For a few minutes neither of them said anything. Then he spoke again.

"I've been in this school longer than Iv'e been anywhere. I could easily have escaped, I know several weak points in their security sostem, I know how to hotwire a car, and how to cheat vending machines. I could be halfway across the country in a week." Piper noticed that he was starting to get a bit loud, and she motioned for him to lower his voice.

"But the first week I arrived here, I was making plans to leave already. I had a map of the grounds and a schedule for the guards and everything." Piper asked him why he didn't leave. "Because the night before I was planning to run away I had a dream. I guess it wasn't much of a dream, I mean I just saw a face, it wasn't moving but there was a voice around it. The face was of a girl more beautiful than words can describe and the voice was soft and smooth and so refined but obviously not belonging to her. The voice told me that her daughter was coming, and I need to be here when she does." Piper was beginning to wonder if it meant what she thought it did. "I had this dream one year ago, and I forgot it soon after, thinking it was just some weird dream, or I just had too much to eat at dinner."

"But I scrapped my plans to escape the next morning, I burned all my papers and decided to give this school a try. Well it ain't perfect but it'll do exactly our parents expect of it. Anyway, when I saw you in the yard that first time you got here, I knew I recognised your face, but I couldn't place it. Then I realised that you were the girl in my dream."

Piper and Leo sat in silence for a few minutes. It had already passed midnight, and both of them should have felt tired. But so many thoughts were running through Piper's brain. How did Leo know that the girl was her? Who did the voice belong to? What did this mean for her?

They both got up in silence and climbed down the ladder and back into Leo's room. As soon as they both had their feet on the grey carpet, Piper turned and said "Valdez, youyou're a strange boy. But I think you're meant to be important to me in some way. I just can't figure out why."


	9. Chapter 8: Oh Ms Believer

It had been almost 5 months since their talk on the roof. Since then, Piper and Leo had gotten into a routine of sneaking onto the roof every few weeks and sitting there for hours. Sometimes talking, sometimes trying to catch up on homework they forgot about, other times they just sat there in silence, looking up at the stars and taking in eachothers' presence.

It was the last day before the Christmas break, the only holiday apart from summer break where the students had the choice to stay at school. More than half of the students stayed behind, either not having anywhere to go or refusing to go to the one place they were invited: home.

Piper had packed her bags to go home the following morning. She was nervous about going home for Christmas, knowing that her father would be hurt if she didn't go, but also knowing that he would be too busy to spend a lot of time with her. She finished zipping up her suitcase with her clothes and shoes, leaving everything else behind in her room for when she got back.

As she got up to see if she had forgotten anything, she heard a soft knock on the door. "Come in," she said. Leo opened the door, but didn't walk in, as he usually did.

"Um... I need to talk to you before you go tomorrow." Leo was staying at school over the holiday. Piper didn't think he even had any family to go to.

"Ok, then. What is it?" Piler pulled out her desk chair and sat on it, inviting Leo to come in.

"No, not now. Tonight, on the rooftop. I need to show you something. Leo never told her to come to the rooftop directly, only hinting that he wanted to go, and Piper always understood. But this was extremely strange.

Nevertheless, Piper agreed and told him that she would go there after she finished packing and found her key.

At 11 o'Clock that night, Piper shiwed up to Leo's door, surprisingly without any interference from guards. She noticed that a light was on inside his room and knocked. For a moment there was no answer, the light went out silently, and the again with a loud click of the light switch.

"Hi." Leo said, looking a bit startled.

"Uh... Hi." Piper remarked, walking into his room. She suddenly remembered that Leo didn't have any lamps in his room, not even a torch. Where was the light coming from?

Piper was wearing thicker layers, knowing the roof would be full of several inhes of snow. But when she climbed out the window, Leo stopped her from going right, the way they usually go. Instead he motioned for her to follow him and climbed down a steep patch of roof directly beneath the second window in his room.

Piler then noticed that Leo hadsn't put on any other clothes, instead remaining in his t shirt and jeans. How was he not frozen? it must be nearing 0 degrees? He was also carrying a small satchel which made a slight tinkling sound whenever he moved it.

Leo led her around to the other side of the building, and on to a flatter bit of roof overlooking some field or other. Around this time the whole building was decorated with dozens of sets of christmas lights blinking wildly with different colours and at different speeds.

 ** _Oh Miss Believer, my pretty sleeper,_**

 ** _Your twisted mind is like snow on the road_.**

 ** _Your shaking shoulders,_**

 ** _Prove that it's colder,_**

 ** _Inside your head,_**

 ** _Than a winter of death_**.

The entire roof was covered with at least 4 inches of snow, except for about 2 square metres of the roof which were right next to a railing, and were covered in a thick blanket, and several large cushion. Piper recognised the cushions as the ones from the teachers' lounge, where teachers took students to have a 'serious discussion about their behaviour and their future.'

The cushions were propped on the railing in a way that made you sit at the perfect angle to see the glistening snow reflecting the lights being emitted by the school, and also the bright full moon overhead, being serenaded by a million blinking stars.

 ** _I will tell you, I love you,_**

 ** _But the_ _muffs on your ears,_**

 ** _Will_ _cater your fears._**

They sat down on the blanket next to eachother, close enough that their shoulders touched and suddenly Piper felt cold no more. She had never actually touched Leo, he was very specific about his personal space.

Piper felt so suddenly comfortable, forgetting all that was wrong woth the world, a her fears, all her mistakes, and just snuggled close to Leo.

After a few minutes of silence. Leo spoke up.

 ** _My nose and feet are running,_**

 ** _As we start to travel through snow,_**

 ** _Together we go._**

 ** _Together we go._**

 _"_ I need to show you something, something I've been hiding my entire life. But first I need to know that when you see it, you will not judge me, or be frightened, or see me as a different person because I am still me." Piper nodded. He wasn't looking at her, but at the stars.

 ** _We get colder_ ,**

 ** _As we get older_ ,**

 ** _W_ _e will_ _walk so much slower._**

"I have never shown this to anyone because you are the only person I trust in the whole world and I just don't want to lose you because of this. I could never live with myself If I ever did anything that made you hate me or scared of me. I promise I could never hurt you."

Then he turned and looked Piper deep into her eyes. He took her hands and cupped them. Then he put his own hands inside them and pressed them together.

 ** _Oh Miss Believer, my pretty weeper,_**

 ** _Your twisted thoughts are like snow on the rooftops,_**

He kept looking into her eyes and spoke again, a single tear running down his cheek.

"I couldn't ever hurt you because I love you."

Leo said these last words as if he had been holding them back for centuries, just waiting for the perfect moment to let them out. Piper held his warm hands between her own and squeezed them together, feeling the warmth and comfort that he gave her whenever she saw him, and said...

 ** _Please take my hands_**

 ** _We're in foreign lands_**

 ** _As we travel through snow,_**

"I love you too, Valdez."

Then Piper leaned in to Leo's face, and kissed him. She kissed him unlike she ever kissed anyone before, with true love that she never felt before with anyone else other than this scrawny, beautiful, mischievous little genius in front of her.

 ** _Together we go._**

Leo kissed her full of warmth and longing and passion that just spoke a million words. But all those words were meaningless to him without the five words that now rang in his head.

 _ **Together we go**._

As piper pulled away, her eyes still closed, she felt Leo's hands getting warmer. She opened her eyes and saw that Leo's were still closed, but his face was illuminated by somthing in his hands.

She looked down and squinted at a small, marble-sized ball of fire in Leo's hands.

"Leo? There's a ball of fire in your hands."

He opened his eyes and smiled. "Do you like it?"

Piper smiled. "This is honestly not the strangest thing about you." Piper leaned in and kissed him again. Shorter this time but with just as much passion as the first. "No more surprises though."

Leo smirked. "Maybe, just one more surprise?" Piper laughed then nodded. "Close your eyes." She closed her eyes and through the cracks of her fingers saw the light from the fire going out.

Then she heard the tinkling sound coming from in front of her. It went on for a moment then Leo told her to open her eyes.

It was pitch black. Not even the Christmas decorations were lit up. For a moment she couldn't even see Leo's face in front of her. Then, the stars started moving.

Hundereds of little blinking lights swirled and twirled around them, dancing around their heads like fireflies. "Leo... Did you make these?" He nodded. Piper looked at him and saw the love in his eyes. The love, for her. For himself, pride and finally, peace, if only just for a moment. Piper saw this and only loved him more.

 **Love. What a crazy little word.**

 **Hey guys! thanks so much for reading my story! I am still new to writing so I am always happy to see people liking and commenting on my story. This one will take a while to finish since I started writing it a long time ago and it only just resurfaced. But thank you so so so much for the support!**

 **\- Maya**

 **The song on this chapter was 'Oh Ms Believer' by Twenty One Pilots which was the only son I think describes this chapter perfectly.**


	10. Chapter 9

Piper always spent Christmas at home. Well, not really _at_ home. She spent Christmas in the hotel that was nearest to her fathers most recent "job". Also, she never spent Christmas with her father.

Every Christmas, for as long as she remembered, went like this:

She wakes up at a normal hour, and stays in bed until her nanny wakes her up for breakfast. She has breakfast alone, then her nanny comes in saying "daddy's on the phone for you." She has a short chat with her father, listening to the routine "I'm so sorry I couldn't be there Piper, the only thing I would love in the world is to see your pretty little face while you're opening your presents!"

Her presents were always stacked up on the coffe table, and she sat opening them for hours, while her nanny was on the phone or doing work in another room. All her presents were obviously picked out by his dad's secretary. All of them had 'to Piper, wih love from daddy xoxo' but none of the brightly coloured packages were _for her_. She knew this because she knew her father knew that her davourite colour in the whole world was orange. She absolutely hated any shade of pink. But, everh year, she got dolls in pink dresses, tou ponies with pink hair, _real_ ponies with pink hair, pink pens, pencils, pencilcases, shoes, dresses. None of the gifts were _for her_.

Then, at the bottom of the pile, every year, there would be a small, clumsily wrapped parcel adressed 'To Piper.' She would delicately untie the orange ribbon, carefully peel back the yellowish paper to reveal a small, hand-carved animal, always with a funny name carved on to the sadde, if it was a horse, or into the hide, if it was a rabbit or something. None of these presents ever said who they came from, but she always knew that they were from her Grandpa Tom. She could imagine him sitting in his rocking chair, expertly whittling away at a chunk of wood to form a small raindeer, then thinking for a moment before inscribing 'Agatha' on the rump.

These were the gifts she always cherished, because every christmas, without fail, her grandpa managed to find her current location and deliver a piece of his heart in yellowish paler, secured with an orange silk ribbon.

This year, Piper hadn't even touched the other gifts, diving straight for the yellowish parcel, and opening it to reveal a brown tortoise with 'Kevin' carved into the underside of the shell. She sat in her room feeling every part of the soft, laquered wood, before pulling out an orange metal biscuit box. She had painted the box orange, and wrote with a marker 'Treasures from Tom' on the top. She opened the lid and got a sudden whiff of pine from the wooden figures inside.

She sat in her room for hours, looking through every single toy she had recieved for Christmas over the years. She looked at Ronald the Bobcat, Sissy the Squirrel. She particularly enjoyed Piper the Lion. A golden lion with a fiery orange mane with 'Piper' inscribed on the winding tail.

When she was called for dinner, she carefully wrapped each figure in tissue paper and neatly placed them in to the box, before slotting it into her wardrobe amongst her shoes.

She walked out of her room and i to the kitchen, where a dish of lamb with potatoes and salad was waiting for her. She sighed deeply, before taking the piece of meat and tossing it into the trash. Nobody ever remembered she was vegetarian.

She disappointedly ate her potatoes and salad in silence, and was about to put her dishes away when she heard a ring of the doorbell.

As a rule, she was to stay out of sight whenever the door rang. Often it was one of her dad's fans or paparazzi that had somehow fou d their hotel room. Her nanny would swiftly open the door, and would courtly tell them, "No, I have never heard of a Tristan McLean." Then she would close the door quiquickly, inform her father that they would be switching hitels, and arrange for a team of people to move a their belonging across town the following morning.

Hiwever, this time her nanny must not have heard the doorbell ringing, in fact, she was nowhere to be seen. Piler bit her cheek and walked cautiously towards the door, as if it would suddenly open and reveal something gruesome.

She stopled about 1 foot away from the door,leaned in close and peeked theough the peeophole. On the other side of the door was a somewhat impatient looking man carrying a small parcel and a clipboard. _Must be a late present from dad_ piper thought, and opened the door.

'Package for a Miss...Buttercup?' Piper froze. She stumbled over her words.

"Uhhh, wh- I...wha- y- yes! That's me, yes." She swiftly signed for the parcel and closed the door, then ran up to her room and closed the door.

Once she was safe in her room, Piler just sat on her bed, holding the parcel in her hands and smiling to herself. It was about rhe size of her palm. Of _course,_ she thought, _Buttercup._

One night, she and Leo were playing 30 questions on the roof. They had to guess what person, real or fictional, dead or alive, the other was thinking of while onky asking 20 yes or no questions. Leo had failed to guess Princess Buttercup from Piper's favourite movie, The Princess Bride. In fact, he had never heard of the movie at all.

The next weekend, they snuck into the teachers' lounge at midnight, which had a DVD player, and watched the DVD of Princess Bride which Piper carried everywhere she went.

Piper smirked at the memory, and gingerly opened the messily wrapper parcel.

Inside the small brown box, was a lot of orange tissue paper, which concealed a small spherical glass jar. The lid of the jar was white, and had "As you wish" scrawled on it in black sharpie.

Piper took out the jar and looked inside it. She gasped. Inside the jar was a single, beautiful bronze butterfly with intricate decorations on the wings, and the tiniest red beads for eyes. She didn't dare take it out, for fear she would damage it, but put the jar back inside the box.

Sbe heard rapid footsteps outside the door.

She stuffed the tissue and wrapping laler under her pillow along with the box and innicently grabbed the boom that was nearest to her, which just so happened to be an english to french dictionary. Sonja came in and looked at her with a startled gaze. "Did I hear a doorbell ring? I was in the bathroom." Piper shook her head."Are you sure? Because you know if someone finds out that we are here we'll ha-"

"Yes I know! Nobody rang the door, trust me." Sonja eased off but looked suspiciously at the book in her hands, then walked out of her room, closing the door behind her.


	11. Chapter 10

Piper was in the most beautiful garden she had ever seen. She walked through it as the colourful scents of roses and lavenders swirled around her. As she headed into a clearing she could hear a woman's voice calling out to her. Her voice sounded like how honey tasted, smooth and sweet, but powerful enough to echo around her, making the leaves of the flowers quiver as if in fright.

At first Piper couldn't make out what the voice was saying, or where it was coming from. But as she walked through the enchanting garden the voice seemed to be saying "Be careful, my daughter. He is not the only one." She stumbled around the garden, the roots crawling slowly towards her, curling around her ankles, dragging her into the brambles and quickly down, drowning her in darkness.

She woke up, grasping at her bedsheets. It had just been a dream, she thought, shaking off the fright that had come over her when she opened her eyes, staring into complete darkness.

Turning on her bedside lamp, Piper pondered over what she had heard. "Be careful, _my daughter._ " Why would she be dreaming about her mother? She had never even _met_ the woman. As far as she knew, her mother was the least significant person in her life, so why was she in her dream?

Piper reached under her bed and tools the jar out of its box. As she stared at the metal wings those words echoed in her mind. "He is not the only one." Who? The only what? If this was about her father, he was definitely not the only person who pretended to care about her. Then she thought about Leo.

He had shown her his power, trusting that she would not think of him differently after. But... Now she was beginning to wonder if what her mother said applied to him. Was he not the only person who could make fire with their hands? What cohld this mean for Piper and what would she do about it?

No! It was just _a dream,_ she thought. Just some nonsense my unconscious is feeding me. My mother is not giving me visions and she is _not going to make me think twice about Leo._


	12. Chapter 11

Piper was in the Athena cabin, sitting across from Annabeth on her bed. The room was completely silent. It had been almost an hour since she had entered, quietly telling Annabeth she needed help with something. Annabeth immediately cleared the Athena cabin and sat Piper down on her bed.

Now, 53 minutes and a very long story later, here they were.

"Have you told Jason yet?"

"No." Piper said, looking at the floor.

"Have you talked to Leo?"

She shook her head.

"Are you going to?"

"I don't know, that's why I'm here! You're meant to be the wise one here, you tell me. Should I lie to my boyfriend and have to live with the knowledge that I betrayed him, or should I tell him that I used to be in love with one of his closest friends? Really, I'm open to discussion." Piper suddenly stopped and looked up at Annabeth, who was wearing the expression of a mother who had just been talked back to by her child. "I'm sorry, I just... I haven't been able to look at either of then since-"

She was interrupted by a sharp knock at the door. Annabeth sat up and walked over to the door, peering through the peephole. Her shoulders eased and she opened the door to let Percy inside.

Piper was about to get up and leave the two alone, when Percy grabbed her arm and said that Leo and Jason were looking for her, and they thought she might have been in here. Piper's heart was beating a million beates per minute. This was the moment, she would have to make a decision before Leo told Jason everything. Maybe he already has!

No, he wouldn't do that without talking to her first, Piper knew that. She would have to find Leo before Jason found her first.


	13. Chapter 12

Piper's relationship with Leo was made official when she walked into the main hall the first day back from break. She didn't even bother to take her bags to her room, leaving them instead at the entrance before running through the heavy double doors, sneaking through crowds of teenagers and parents and occasionally popping her head up above the crowd, as if looking for somebody.

When she finally spotted Leo, she made an instant beeline for him, no longer politely nudging people out of her way. She ran into his already open arms, while crowds of surprised people stared in awe. Then, surprising both the onlookers and Leo, she kissed him, not caring who saw anymore. She had been waiting 3 weeks for this moment and nobody would take it away from her.

Of course, thay both got taken to the headteacher's office, because 'public displays of affection are discouraged in a reformatory environment' and 'you should have known better.' Nevertheless, now everybody knew of their relationship, for better or for worse.

4 months later

The school had organised a field trip due to a recent scandal that had something to do with someone claiming that the children were kept in solitary confinement and were not allowed to engage in conversation with anyone other than their teachers. It was well-known to the students that the kid that made this complaint was expelled because he spent almost all of his time in detention. The case was quickly dealt with, but the school board noticed that the parents were still suspicious of their policies, so they decided to throw in an innocent, educational, definitely freedom-expressing field trip to the grand canyon!

Piper was probably the only person who was excited for this trip, except, of course, the headteacher, who would have the entire building empty for almost a whole day. A day free of noise, and children, and anger-management-problem-inducing occurrences.

But Piper was planning something, or, she _had_ been planning something. She had spent weeks working out the perfect strategy to get some time alone with Leo. She hadn't managed to find a way to give back to Leo for her Christmas present, which was actually in her backpack. She took the butterfly everywhere with her, the muffled clinking of metal against glass in her backpack being a constant reminder of that night on the roof.

A few days after their return from the Christmas break, a certain copy of The Princess Bride by S. Morgenstern had gone missing from the school library. Now, the school didn't care much for library property, since most of the books had been ripped, drawn on or just disappeared mysteriously all the time. But this book had somehow been overlooked by every common vandal that walked into the library, and it would be surprising, since the brown, leather-bound book, embossed with gold was a beauty to behold, and a magnet for rude, messily scrawled messages in the front cover. It was as if somebody had delivered a strongly worded and very threatening message to just the right people.

Piper had hidden the book inside her laptop case, which was empty since her laptop was still at home, or in whatever hotel her father was staying in.

While she was on break, Piper had taken watercolour lessons, since she had nothing else to do in her spare time. And over the 4 months leading up, she had been secretly painting on the pages of the book, knowing that neither of them would want to actually read it, due to the school not having dyslexia-friendly books or resources. She had recalled from memory every one of her favourite moments she had shared with Leo, and painted them on to the pages of the book.

The title page was filled with fireworks, reminiscent of the first time Piper saw Leo. A few pages in, A night sky with a million white and yellow stars: the first night on the roof. A painting of the two of them illuminated by the light of a tv screen: the night they snuck into the teachers' lounge to watch the movie. One page was two pairs of hands, one on top of the other, surrounded by swarms of fireflies, a small ball of fire above the palms of the upper hands. The middle page was a jar with a mechanical bronze butterfly with the words 'As you wish' written on the top of the jar. Every few pages was painted with such detail that one might look for an hour at one picture and still find new hidden details in a corner.

Piper had worked out a plan which involved somebody, she hadn't yet decided who, getting caught between the doors of the bus. At that point, everybody's attention would be on them, and Piper would have enough time to pull Leo aside and give him the book.

The fluttering of the butterfly was not nearly as strong as the butterflies in Piper's stomach. She had her hand resting on her bag, feeling the corners of the leather through the fabric. Leo was sitting next to her, fiddling with the Coach's megaphone. She couldn't help but admire the speed that he worked at, his fingers moving swiftly between wires and buttons and other fiddly bits of metal.

Piper turned her head and looked out through the window, having heard a loud, echoing clap of thunder. _Woah,_ she thought, _when did it get so cloudy?_ She turned back to ask if Leo had noticed a change in the weather, but her heart skipped a beat when she saw a different boy sitting in the same spot that Leo was sitting in just a second ago. She looked at the boy: tall, blond, well-built, and asleep. Piper looked around for Leo, but she soon heard the familiar muttering he made when he was working, coming from in front of her, and immediately recognised the mess of curly hair peeking over the top of the backrest.

A few moments passed, and Piper found herself incapable to remember what she had been so worried about. She looked over to her boyfriend, Jason, who had clearly fallen asleep on the long and dreary ride to the grand canyon. Her hand was resting on top of her bag, which only contained her pencilcase, a bag of chips, and a copy of The Princess bride, which some vandal had written nasty messages in. Piper didn't understand what drove her to take this book from the library, she never read if she could help it. Anyway, she preferred the movie much more.


	14. Chapter 13

The cool breeze of the summer afternoon brushed a thin strand of hair into Piper's face, but she didn't brush it away. She let it sit there a few moments, tickling her cheek, until a second breath of wind blew it away.

She was sitting on the hard ground outside the Hephaestus cabin, her back leaning on the dusty wall. She sat up when she heard the door creak open, and looked up into the face of a young boy, Harley. He looked at her for a moment, then shifted his gaze across the grass. "He's at the strawberry fields." Piper didn't ask how he knew, she just nodded to him and stood up, not caring to dust herself off before starting down the hill.

When she reached the strawberry fields, the only people she saw where some last-minute fruit pickers heading back towards the big house, heavy baskets of strawberries in hand.

Worried that she'd missed him, Piper started turning to leave, when a high-pitched mechanical buzzing rang across the field. She turned to her left, and, sure enough, there was Leo. Fiddling away with some bits of wire, as usual. But the strange thing was that he was facing away from her. Piper was sure that he heard her walking towards him, but still he didn't turn around, he just kept staring right into the setting sun.

Finally, after a few minutes of slow, yet comfortable, silence, Leo turned around to face Piper, and in a voice that was so like his own, yet so different now, he spoke to her the words she had most dreaded hearing:

"Do you regret it?"

She had known that thus was coming. She had known since the moment she awoke back at camp, having learnt the truth at last. The truth was, she had refused to think about the answer until now.

"What do you mean?" Piper asked him, in a voice that wasalmost too... _her_ , "Do I regret what happened between us, or do I regret that I'm remembering it?" She looked away from him for a moment, gazing briefly at the almost-setting sun. They would have to leave soon, otherwise the harpies would be at them.

"Either way, the answer is, and always will be, no."

At this, Leo looked shocked, but only for a second. His face shifted into an expression that can't really be described in only a few words, except maybe "What is done, is done."

They spent the final minutes of daylight talking, mostly about wether they should tell Jason. Piper argued that Jason would be betrayed, but Leo reminded her that they only really started dating long after the memories ended.

And they left it at that. What they didn't know, they didn't need to. What they had now was a friendship that was stronger, and a past that wouldn't change, no matter how hard they wanted to. But really, neither of them wanted to change it. It would be foolish to pretend it didn't happen, and even more foolish to pretend it had any significance anymore.

Leo and Piper walked together in silence. The sun was dipping below the hills, and the cool breeze had come to a stop. They reached the Hephaestus cabin as the first stars began to flicker in the sky. Piper bid Leo goodnight, but as she turned to walk towards her cabin, Leo stopped her, and from his pocket brought out a small, mechanical butterfly.


	15. AN

**I just want to say thank you so much to everyone who read my story and commented. This being my first longer story I wasn't sure how it would turn out, since I started it a little over a year ago but abandoned it. I had to rewrite most of what I had started with, all the while not really knowing where the story was going.** **All in all, I can safely say that as my first story I am satisfied, and I can't wait to write more, and get better quality stories out for you!** **Thank you again and take care!** **x** **Maya**


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